 | #022 "The Creeping Death"
Vol. 4, No. 4 Published: 01/15/33 Submitted: 06/24/32 under the same title Author: Walter Gibson Review date: Jun 22, 2001 |
THE CREEPING DEATH was originally published in the January 15, 1933 issue of The Shadow Magazine. This creeping death mentioned in the title is an insideous oriental powder that is transfered by touch. But the intended victim doesn't know he's infected for hours or even days. Then, his extremities start to become numb. His hands freeze, then his arms.
Gradually the paralysis creeps across his whole body until he lies still, unable to even speak. Finally the light fades from his eyes as even his heart stops. It's a horrible way to die, and it's controlled by the evil Lucien Partridge.
Lucien Partridge is an eccentric old scientist who has discovered the secret of making fake gold. It's a cheap alloy, virtually undetectible from gold. He's gradually introducing it into the world's gold supply, and no one is the wiser. His ultimate plan? To take over the world!
If anyone gets in his way, there's always the creeping death! Jerry Fitzroy is the first to go. Fitzroy is a secret-service agent who has stumbled upon Partridge's secret discovery. But before he can tell anyone, he is exposed to the secret death powder.
Clifford Forster is the next victim. Forster owns the New Era Mine in California, and has been substituting Professor Partridge's fake gold for the real gold supposedly being mined there. But he gets too greedy, and falls victim to Lucien Partridge's wrath in the form of the creeping death.
And the list goes on. It eventually includes Vic Marquette of the secret service, and even our old friend Lamont Cranston, in actuality the disguised personage of The Shadow! Can the evil be stopped? Will The Shadow fall victim to the creeping death? Can the evil genius of Lucien Partridge be overcome? All the answers will be found in this terrific story that will keep you on the edge of your seat!
The familiar characters in this story are Vic Marquette of the secret service, and Lamont Cranston, wealthy world traveler. Harry Vincent and Joe Cardona appear early in the story, but then are left behind in New York when the action moves to Westbrook Falls. That's where most of the story takes place and where the climax of the story occurs on the brink of a granite cliff overlooking the river far below.
We get to see those wonderful rubber suction cups in action - those four disklike objects - flat surfaces that bend as The Shadow twists them, attaches them to his hands and feet, and then scales the sheet granite walls of the Westbrook cliffs, his black form clinging to the sheer wall of the great gorge. Whew! That takes a lot of nerve!